There was also the little debate we had going of the dinner date due in two weeks. Gideon had told us all that our parents, along with Sian’s parents, and us, were all supposed to be meeting up as some form of a civil dinner. We were getting to know each other. How the fuck we were supposed to do that, I didn’t know. Probably one of those many things where I was going to have to be my usual charming self through.
“Are you okay?” I asked Sian. We were hanging out at the cafeteria for lunch. Gideon, Mateo, and Dante had gone to go get Heather. Until we knew who was sending those letters, we’d given Sian our word that Heather would be protected, and I wasn’t going to be a liar. She would be protected.
“Yeah, I will be. Do you think it’s a student?”
“I don’t know.” I rubbed at my eyes. Last night had been another late one of trying to figure out who’d be sending death threats to her friend.
I hated that I couldn’t figure it out.
“I don’t know either. At first, I thought it was Chloe or one of her cronies.”
“Chloe would make sure everyone knew it was her.”
“True.” She stabbed at her plate. “Can you talk to me about something else? Anything else?”
“Last night I thought about your pussy.”
She turned to me and I saw the smile in her eyes. “You know what I mean.”
“I do know what you mean, but come on, how could I not take an opportunity to think about your pretty pussy?”
“You’re not playing fair.” She glanced around the cafeteria. “Anyone could hear you.”
“Let them. I’ve got nothing to hide.”
She’d kept her hair down and I reached out to push some back behind her ear. “You look really pretty today.”
“You say it every single day.”
“And I mean it.”
She smiled, and I knew she loved receiving compliments, even if she wasn’t entirely sure how to react to them.
One day, she was going to learn to accept them.
“Do you think about me?” I asked.
“Sometimes.”
My cell phone went off, and I glanced down to see an urgent message from Mateo.
Come to the dorm, quickly.
“We’ve got to go,” I said.
“What? Why?”
“We’re needed at the dorm.”
I grabbed our trays and dumped them in the trash, and with my hand at her back, I marched her out of the cafeteria, aware of the gazes on our backs. We walked the distance to our dorm. With it being lunch, the place was crowded, but people made a wide berth for us as we got to the dorm.
I urged Sian forward, and the need to protect her was strong.
“Is it Heather?” Sian asked as we entered.
Gideon sat at the table, head in his hands. Dante was in the corner, hands clasped together. No sign of Heather.
“She’s in the library,” Mateo said.
“What’s the emergency?” I asked.
Mateo looked so angry.
“Fred Arson was badly beaten and is currently unconscious in the hospital. No one knows what happened, but this took place last night. He was last seen entering his room at eight, carrying a pizza,” Mateo said.
Sian gasped. “He was? Why? How?”
Mateo looked at me. “The Society, it has to be.”
“Don’t fucking say it aloud. We’ve already spoken too fucking much about it,” Gideon said, slamming his chair back. The sound echoed around the room and Sian gasped.
“Wait? What?”
“Nothing, don’t worry about it,” Gideon said.
“Don’t worry about it. How can I not when I asked Fred to look into it?”
This had us all turning toward her.
“What?” we all said in unison.
She explained how she was struggling with everything and asked Fred to find anything out that he could. He never got back to her except to tell her he couldn’t do it as the risk was too high.
“He stopped,” Mateo said. “He was … Fred was the guy I used to find out everything I could about our dads, about your mom.”
“My mom?”
I had a feeling we were about to have a really long discussion.
“Do we have time for this?” Gideon asked.
“How can we not have time for this?” Dante asked. “This is clearer now than ever before. The reach of them.”
“We don’t even know who attacked Fred,” I said. We all needed to keep a level head, and with me saying that, shit really had to be hitting the fan. This wasn’t good. In fact, this had gone from not good, to good old-fashioned, fucked-up crazy.
I didn’t know which way was up or down, or left or right. None of it made any kind of sense The world had tipped over on its axis.
I knew Mateo blamed himself even though all he was doing was putting the tech genius to work.
“Hey, are you okay?” I asked.
“No, man, do I fucking look okay?” He continued to pace the room.
“Tell me what’s going on,” Sian said.